Recommended Reading/sub
From /lit/ Wiki
An overview of literature and genre fiction recommended by /lit/.
Literature
By country
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| Essential works | ||||
 Max Havelaar (1860) by Multatuli |
 Parents Worry (1988) by Gerard Reve |
 Amsterdam Stories (1910s) by Nescio |
 Beyond Sleep (1966) by Willem Hermans |
 The Discovery of Heaven (1992) by Harry Mulisch |
| Further recommendations | ||||
| Translated | Lucifer ( ) by Joost van den Vondel | |||
| A Posthumous Confession ( ) by Marcellus Emants | ||||
| In Praise of Folly ( ) by Erasmus | ||||
| In a Dark Wood Wandering ( ) by Hella S. Haasse | ||||
| The Waning of the Middle Ages ( ) by J. Huizinga | ||||
| The Letters of Vincent van Gogh | ||||
| The Ten Thousand Things ( ) by Maria Dermout | ||||
| Eline Vere ( ) by Louis Couperus | ||||
| Chapel Road ( ) by Louis Paul Boon | ||||
| I Dreamed in the Cities at Night ( ) by Remco Campert | ||||
| Omega Minor ( ) by Paul Verhaeghen | ||||
| Cheese ( ) by Willem Elsschot | ||||
| Turkish Delight ( ) by Jan Wolkers | ||||
| The Darkroom of Damocles ( ) by Willem Frederik Hermans | ||||
| Wonder ( ) by Hugo Claus | ||||
| The Following Story ( ) by Cees Nooteboom | ||||
| Character ( ) by F. Bordewijk | ||||
| The Twin ( ) by Gerbrand Bakker | ||||
| Tomorrow Pamplona ( ) by Jan van Mersbergen | ||||
| Untranslated | Camera Obscura ( ) by Hildebrand | |||
| De Stille Kracht ( ) by Louis Couperus | ||||
| Van De Koele Meren des Doods ( ) by Frederik van Eeden | ||||
| De Avonden ( ) by Gerard Reve | ||||
| Terug naar Oegstgeest ( ) by Jan Wolkers | ||||
| Recommendation images | ||||
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| Essential works | ||||
 The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) by Goethe |
 The Magic Mountain (1912) by Thomas Mann |
 The Man Without Qualities (1942) by Robert Musil |
 The Tin Drum (1959) by Gunter Grass |
 Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885) by Friedrich Nietzsche |
| Further recommendations | ||||
| Classic | The Robbers and Wallenstein (1781) by Friedrich Schiller | |||
| the Marquise of O and Other Stories (1808) by Heinrich von Kleist | ||||
| The Broken Jug (1806) by Heinrich von Kleist | ||||
| Faust (1832) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | ||||
| Danon's Death (1835) George Buchner | ||||
| The Rider on the White Horse (1888) by Theodor Storm | ||||
| Effi Briest (1895) by Theodor Fontane | ||||
| Modern | Buddenbrooks (1901) by Thomas Mann | |||
| The Loyal Subject (1914) by Heinrich Mann | ||||
| The Metamorphosis (1915) by Franz Kafka | ||||
| The Trial (1925) by Franz Kafka | ||||
| The Castle (1926) by Franz Kafka | ||||
| Siddhartha (1922) by Hermann Hesse | ||||
| Steppenwolf (1927) by Hermann Hesse | ||||
| Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929) by Alfred Doblin | ||||
| The Visit (1956) by Friedrich Durrenmatt | ||||
| The Physicists (1961) by Friedrich Durrenmatt | ||||
| The Flounder (1977) by Gunter Grass | ||||
| Cassandra (1984) Christa Wolf | ||||
| Perfume (1985) by Patrick Suskind | ||||
| The Last Word (1988) by Christoph Ransmayr | ||||
| Recommendation images | ||||
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| Essential works | ||||
 The Tale of Genji (11th century) by Murasaki Shikibu |
 Kokoro (1914) by Natsume Soseki |
 Rashomon (1915) by Akutagawa |
 Naomi (1924) by Junichiro Tanizaki |
 Snow Country (1947) by Yasunari Kawabata |
| Further recommendations | ||||
| Classical Literature (until 1600's) | The Gossamer Years (974) by Mother of Michitsuna | |||
| The Pillow Book (1002) by Sei Shonagon | ||||
| The Tales of Ise by Anonymous | ||||
| Hojoki (1212) by Kamo no Chomei | ||||
| Essays in Idleness (1330) by Yoshida Kenko | ||||
| The Tale of Heike (1371) by Anonymous | ||||
| Edo Period (1603-1868) | The Life of an Amorous Woman (1686) by Saikaku Ihara | |||
| Hagakure: the Book of the Samurai (1716) by Yamamoto Tsunetomo | ||||
| Four Major Plays (~1720) by Chikamatsu Monzaemon | ||||
| Chushingura (1748) by Takedo Izumo, Miyoshi Shoraku, Namiki Senryuu | ||||
| Tales of Moonlight and Rain (1776) by Ueda Akinari | ||||
| Modern Literature (1868-1945) | Ukigumo (1887) by Futabatei Shimei | |||
| Pagoda, Skull and Samurai (1889) by Koda Rohan | ||||
| In the Shade of Spring Leaves (1892-6) by Higuchi Ichiyo | ||||
| Japanese Gothic Tales (1900) by Izumi Kyoka | ||||
| The Broken Commandment (1906) by Toson Shimazaki | ||||
| The Quilt and Other Stories (1907) by Katai Tayama | ||||
| The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa (1924) by Kenji Miyazawa | ||||
| Botchan (1906) by Natsume Soseki | ||||
| I Am a Cat (1905) by Natsume Soseki | ||||
| The Wild Geese (1913) by Mori Ogai | ||||
| The Paper Door and Other Stories (1927) by Shiga Naoya | ||||
| During the Rain & Flowers in the Shade (1930) by Kafu Nagai | ||||
| Musashi (1935) by Eiji Yoshikawa | ||||
| The Makioka Sisters (1943) by Junichiro Tanizaki | ||||
| Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1940) by Edogawa Ranpo | ||||
| Post War (1946-present) | The Counterfeiter and Other Stories by Yasushi Inou | |||
| Palm-of-the-Hand Stories by Yasunari Kawabata | ||||
| The Master of Go (1954) by Yasunari Kawabata | ||||
| The Setting Sun (1947) by Osamu Dazai | ||||
| Fires on the Plain (1951) by Shohei Ooka | ||||
| The Waiting Years (1957) by Fumiko Enchi | ||||
| Confessions of a Mask (1948) by Yukio Mishima | ||||
| The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956) by Yukio Mishima | ||||
| Spring Snow (1963) by Yukio Mishima | ||||
| Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids (1958) by Kenzaburo Oe | ||||
| A Personal Matter (1964) by Kenzaburo Oe | ||||
| Black Rain (1966) by Masuji Ibuse | ||||
| The Box Man (1973) by Kobo Abe | ||||
| The Woman in the Dunes (1962) by Kobo Abe | ||||
| Silence (1966) by Shusaku Endo | ||||
| The Samurai (1980) by Shusaku Endo | ||||
| The Twilight Years (1972) by Sawako Ariyoshi | ||||
| Almost Transparent Blue (1976) by Ryu Murakami | ||||
| Kitchen (1988) by Banana Yoshimoto | ||||
| Norwegian Wood (1987) by Haruki Murakami | ||||
| The Elephant Vanishes (1991) by Haruki Murakami | ||||
| The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1995) by Haruki Murakami | ||||
| The Housekeeper and the Professor (2003) by Yoko Ogawa | ||||
| Recommendation images | ||||
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| Essential works | ||||
 A Doll's House (1879) by Henrik Ibsen |
 The Wild Duck (1884) by Henrik Ibsen |
 Hunger (1890) by Knut Hamsun |
 Growth of the Soil (1917) by Knut Hamsun |
 The Wreath (1920) by Sigrid Undset |
| Further recommendations | ||||
| Classic | Brand (1866) by Henrik Ibsen | |||
| Hedda Gabler (1891) by Henrik Ibsen | ||||
| Pan (1894) by Knut Hamsun | ||||
| Contemporary | Beatles (1984) by Lars Saabye Christensen | |||
| Naïve. Super (1996) by Erlend Loe | ||||
| Out Stealing Horses (2003) by Per Petterson | ||||
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| Essential works | ||||
 A Hero of Our time (1841) by Mikhail Lermontov |
 War and Peace (1869) by Leo Tolstoy |
 The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by Fyodor Dostoevsky |
 The Plays of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov |
 The Master and Margarita (1967) by Mikhail Bulgakov |
| Further recommendations | ||||
| 19th Century | Dead Souls (1842) by Nikolai Gogol | |||
| Diary of a Madman and Other Stories (1842) by Nikolai Gogol | ||||
| Oblomov (1859) by Ivan Goncharov | ||||
| Sketches From a Hunter's Album (1852) by Ivan Turgenev | ||||
| Fathers and Sons (1862) by Ivan Turgenev | ||||
| The Golovlyov Family (1876) by Mikhail Saltykov | ||||
| Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy | ||||
| Anna Karenina (1877) by Leo Tolstoy | ||||
| Notes From Underground (1864) by Fyodor Dostoevsky | ||||
| The Idiot (1869) by Fyodor Dostoevsky | ||||
| Crime and Punishment (1866) by Fyodor Dostoevsky | ||||
| Demons (1872) by Fyodor Dostoevsky | ||||
| Woe from Wit (1823) by Aleksandr Griboyedov | ||||
| The Collected Stories by Anton Chekhov | ||||
| The Collected Stories by Alexander Pushkin | ||||
| Lady McBeth of Mtsensk and Other Stories (1865) by Nikolai Leskov | ||||
| 20th Century | Life and Fate (1959) by Vasily Grossman | |||
| Heart of a Dog (1925) by Mikhail Bulgakov | ||||
| Doctor Zhivago (1957) by Boris Pasternak | ||||
| Quiet Flows the Don (1934) by Mikhail Sholokhov | ||||
| The Collected Stories by Ivan Bunin | ||||
| We (1921) by Yevgeny Zamyatin | ||||
| Petersburg (1913) by Andrei Bely | ||||
| The Foundation Pit (1930) by Andrey Platonov | ||||
| Envy (1927) by Yuri Olesha | ||||
| A School for Fools (1960s) by Sasha Sokolov | ||||
| Invitation to a Beheading (1936) by Vladimir Nabokob | ||||
| The Complete Works by Isaac Babel | ||||
| Kolyma Tales (1954-73) by Varlam Shalamov | ||||
| Today I Wrote Nothing by Daniil Kharms | ||||
| Roadside Picnic (1971) by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky | ||||
| Recommendation images | ||||
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| Essential works | |||||
 Disgrace (1999) by J.M. Coetzee |
 I Write What I Like (1978) by Steve Biko |
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I Write What I Like (1978) by Steve Biko |
 Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) by J.M. Coetzee |
 Ways of Dying (1995) by Zakes Mda |
| Further recommendations | |||||
| Contemporary | Zoo City (2010) by Lauren Beukes | ||||
| The Way of the Women (2004) by Marlene van Niekerk | |||||
By format
Short story collections | ||||
| Classic | ||||
 A Parisian Affair and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant |
 First Love and Other Stories by Ivan Turgenev |
 The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy |
 Three Tales by Gustav Flaubert |
 Dead Men Tell No Tales by Emile Zola |
| Further classic collections | ||||
| The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky | ||||
| The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe | ||||
| The Kruezter Sonata and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy | ||||
| The Queen of Spades and Other Stories by Alexander Pushkin | ||||
| Ward No. 6 and Other Stories, 1892–1895 by Anton Chekhov | ||||
| The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896–1904 by Anton Chekhov | ||||
| Carmen and Other Stories by Prosper Merimee | ||||
| Modern | ||||
 Elephant by Raymond Carver |
 Dubliners by James Joyce |
 Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges |
 Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway |
 South of No North by Charles Bukowski |
| Further modern collections | ||||
| The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Six Other Short Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald | ||||
| In the Heart of the Country by William Gass | ||||
| Selected Short Stories of William Faulkner | ||||
| The Return by Andrei Platonov | ||||
| The Collected Short Stories by Roald Dahl | ||||
| Contemporary | ||||
 Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace |
 The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami |
 Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolaño |
 The Dog of the Marriage by Amy Hempel |
 Life After God by Douglas Coupland |
| Further contemporary collections | ||||
| How We are Hungry by Dave Eggers | ||||
| Drown by Junot Diaz | ||||
| Break it Down by Lydia Davis | ||||
| No One Belongs Here More than You by Miranda July | ||||
| Recommendation images | ||||
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Genre fiction
By genre
Fantasy | ||||
| Epic fantasy | ||||
 The Hobbit (1937) by J. R. R. Tolkien |
 The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955) by J. R. R. Tolkien |
 The Black Company (1984—) by Glen Cook |
 The Wheel of Time (1990—) by Robert Jordan |
 A Song of Ice and Fire (1996—) by George R. R. Martin |
 Malazan Book (1999–2011) by Steven Erikson |
 The First Law (2006—) by Joe Abercrombie |
 The Kingkiller Chronicle (2007—) by Patrick Rothfuss |
 The Stormlight Archive (2010—) by Brandon Sanderson |
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| Additional epic fantasy | ||||
| The Silmarillion (1977) by J. R. R. Tolkien | ||||
| Shannara (1977—) by Terry Brooks | ||||
| The Swordbearer (1982) by Glen Cook | ||||
| The Belgariad (1982–1984) by David Eddings | ||||
| The Deed of Paksenarrion (1992) by Elizabeth Moon | ||||
| Mistborn (2006–2008) by Brandon Sanderson | ||||
| Weird fiction | ||||
 The House on the Borderland (1908) William Hope Hodgson |
 At the Mountains of Madness (1936) by H. P. Lovecraft |
 Perdido Street Station (2000) by China Miéville |
 City of Saints and Madmen (2001) by Jeff VanderMeer |
 The Emperor of Dreams (2002) by Clark Ashton Smith |
| Additional weird fiction | ||||
| The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1931) by H. P. Lovecraft | ||||
| Kraken (2010) by China Miéville | ||||
| Recommendation images | ||||
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